Rotorua Fish for Nelson

The largest consignment of rainbow trout fingerlings to leave the hatchery of the Wild Life branch of the Department of Internal Affairs at Ngongotaha, Rotorua, were fed into Lakes Rotoiti and Rotorua and several Nelson streams last month. The 15,000 fingerlings raised in the hatchery were brought by special tanker from Rotorua by officers of the department, and aided by the Nelson Acclimatisation Society ranger, Mr Doug Zumbach, and society officers, the fish were air-lifted to selected spots in the lakes by helicopter – the first such drop ever carried out by ' copter. When we heard of the project, we contacted the editor of the "Rotorua Photo News", Mr Jack Lang, who sent us a fine series of pictures of the work at the hatchery, and, in particu lar, the operations involved in sending all these fish to Nelson.

Officers at the hatchery display a net full of rainbow finger lings taken from the rearing pond in which they' re standing. Inside the rearing station fingerlings are netted in preparation for their 30-hour journey (above right). At right is ova received from the Tongariro collecting and eyeing station in an incubator and below is a view of the tanks and troughs inside the rearing station at Ngongotaha, in which the ova are hatched.

The fingerlings are transferred to one of the tanks on the tanker truck.

During the trip the water in the tanks must receive oxygen and be agitated and kept at a constant temperature (the cylinders are being checked here).

The tanker leaves Ngongotaha for Nelson (a rearing pond is at back).

At Lake Rotoiti Stan Blake took these two pictures for us of the preparations made for transferring the fish to smaller cans for the air lift.

The tanks are loaded aboard a ' copter

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The Nelson Photo News

No 85 : November 11, 1967

Rotorua Fish for Nelson